Communication between the Government of the Student Body and the students its serves has been of upmost importance to GSB this year. Now, GSB is trying to branch off a new line of communication to Iowa State’s administration.

GSB is in the process of beginning what they are calling “roundtable conversations” with different directors of administration departments with the goal of achieving an open line of communication allowing both sides to work more effectively on issues and to improve the university.

“We are widening and establishing stronger connections with administrators which will allow us to work better on issues and also to work more efficiently,” said Spencer Hughes, GSB’s director of student affairs and junior in speech communication.

The idea was spawned at a GSB Executive Cabinet retreat Sept. 15, where executive cabinet members met with administrators Pete Englin, director of Department of Residence; Terry Mason, assistant vice president for Student Counseling Service; Michelle Hendricks, director of Student Health; and  Pamela Anthony, dean of students.

“This meeting allowed us to talk candidly with the administrators about what’s on our mind,” Hughes said.

During this meeting the administrators and cabinet members talked about what each side needed to be doing and also discussed the need for getting student feedback more efficiently.

One idea was to implement a feedback system that would be convenient enough for students to use and able to get feedback to administrators with more ease.

“The idea was that if we can help them they can help us the students better,” said Andrew Gall, GSB’s chief of staff and senior in mechanical engineering.

Currently the whole process is still a work in progress, but the plan is for a mix of members from the executive cabinet and the GSB senate to meet with a couple different administrators in a small group roundtable discussion. Gall projected they would have meetings starting in about two to three weeks.

“We are trying to start a dialogue between the administrators and GSB,” Gall said. “We’re out there on the front line talking to students every day, and this will allow us to pass on issues more conveniently.”

So far the GSB Executive Cabinet has received positive reactions from the group of administrators who partook in the first meeting. With this two-way-street relationship, Gall thinks this will allow GSB to help address issues the university has and allow for more student input to be considered during matters.

“We think it will allow for better communication with the student body and the administration to address certain issues,” Hughes said.